Nick “The Honey Badger” Cummins’ post game interviews are the stuff of legend.
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“Just like that kid that fell outta the tree, ya know, he just wasn’t in it,” Cummins once said, eloquently explaining that, from the outset, his team never stood a chance.
“We need to be like a midget at a urinal, stay on our toes,” he said on another occasion, elucidating the importance of being prepared for any situation.
“You’re as tough as woodpecker lips,” Cummins said, exclaiming at the resilience of an opponent.
So given all that, we could think of no better special guest speaker for a rugby lunch than the Wallabies and Western Force winger. And Merewether Carlton have booked him for the Greens Foundation Ball at Noah’s on the Beach on March 18.
They posted a short video of The Honey Badger on their Facebook page on Wednesday. “G’day, Honey Badger here, look um, 18th of March, the Merewether Rugby Club have got their foundation ball coming up, can’t wait, get up there, chew the fat, tell some lies, press forward, see you there,” he says. For tickets and information go to this page. But how did Cummins get his nickname, you ask?
We’ll let the great man do what he does best, and that’s including playing rugby, and explain.
"I saw the honey badger, and became fascinated. It is just so aggressive and will never say die," Cummins told Fairfax Media in 2012. "One of the stories which inspired me is that it is documented that a honey badger killed a male lion in a one-on-one battle.
"What happened was that he clawed the canastas off the big fella, going the old one-two. The big fella walked around the corner and fell over. The honey badger got up, shook himself, and just trotted off. For me, that was outstanding."
It should be a great night.
WAS EDDIE PUSHED?
Sticking with rugby union and has someone been beating up on Eddie Jones?
It certainly looked like it when the Australian-born England coach attended the official launch of the Six Nations championship the other day wearing a large bandage over his left-eye, which was severely bruised and blackened.
But then the former Wallabies mentor led the media on a merry dance as he gave two alternative explanations for the injury.
Initially Jones said he had fallen in his hotel bathroom earlier in the day, but later changed his story.
"We've had judo then MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) - we're going through the martial arts," he joked when asked about the injury at the Hurlingham Club in London.
"Actually I slipped over in the hotel this morning.
“I walked out of the shower, I forgot to shave, and I went over."
It seemed an unlikely explanation given the yellowing bruise around his black eye and he switched tack later in the day when interviewed on TV.
"It was a tough old training camp," he said having just returned from England's preparations in Portugal.
"I just slipped over and got my head cut at training.
"It's just one of those things.
“I slipped over and got hit, nothing too drastic." Asked who had hit him, Jones said: "I don't know, I'll have a look at the video later."
But did he slip or was he pushed?
Do we have a Jason Taylor-David Fa'alogo scenario here where one of the players has been laying into poor Eddie?
But there doesn’t seem to be any reason to be frustrated with England’s recent form.
Maybe someone is not getting enough game time?
Either way, there is more to this story.